The present invention generally relates to apparatus for maintaining an electronic device at a predetermined temperature.
Thermal apparatus are utilized in the electronics industry for controlling the temperature of an electronic device during testing and burn-in procedures. In years past the devices under test (DUT) were of such low power dissipation, that the “Burn-In Ovens” were just that—ovens. It was necessary to add heat to get the DUTs up to the temperature at which testing was to be performed.
In the last few years, the situation has changed. Because the DUTs were becoming higher power, some cooling had to be applied. Initially that cooling came from just blowing air over them, and then adding heat sinks to them with air blowing. Later, the use of chilled liquid and Thermal Electric Coolers (TEC) was added to the arsenal. With these last two, the industry is using technology similar to other testing in that they use either heaters (in the case of the chilled liquid) and the TEC is a heater itself.